Within the field of health informatics, the DICOM (digital imaging and communication in medicine) standard addresses the exchange of digital images, and information related to the production and management of those images, between both medical imaging equipment and systems concerned with the management and communication of that information, such as Picture Archiving anc Communication System (PACS), Hospital Information System (HIS) and Radiology Information System (RIS).

This document is equivalent to part 1 of DICOM. As such, it normatively describes the content of DICOM (Clause 6) and the requirements to make a claim of conformance (Clause 5).

The DICOM standard is applicable to diagnostic medical imaging as practiced in radiology, cardiology, pathology, dentistry, ophthalmology and related disciplines, and image-based therapies such as interventional radiology, radiotherapy and surgery. It is also applicable to a wide range of image and non-image related information exchanged in clinical, research, veterinary, and other medical environments.